There is a growing trend in the commercial and residential building industry toward replacing wood with alternative building materials. With the depletion of the world's forests, lumber is becoming less desirable as a building material because of both the ecological and economic consequences. The price of lumber, especially hardwoods from nearly extinct old-growth forests, fluctuates greatly, most often upwardly, as supplies grow scarcer. Wood is also generally the least durable of common building materials from both a structural and an aesthetic standpoint. Rotting, termite infested wood undermines the integrity of a structure built of it, and faded, weathered wood detracts from the appearance of buildings. Additionally, wood buildings present a greater fire hazard than do buildings constructed of less flammable materials.
Prefabricated concrete building panels offer a safe and relatively inexpensive alternative to wood and are easier to build with than brick, which requires skilled masons and artisans for proper construction. Building with prefabricated concrete panels lowers building costs because of both the relatively low cost of the materials themselves and because of the relatively minimal skill required to build with them. This low cost is especially important when constructing, for example, affordable housing projects or commercial buildings.
Many prefabricated building panels have been developed by inventors in efforts to solve various problems associated with building construction. For example, several panel designs are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,745,731; 3,948,008; 4,2311,199; 4,512,126; 4,909,001; 5,065,558; and 5,313,753. These patents describe various concrete panel designs and methods of construction using them.
Most all of these related art building panels have shortcomings that make them unsuitable or inadequate for many construction applications. For example, some of them require more than minimally skilled workers for construction, others are expensive, and most of them require additional support and reinforcement because the panels alone are not strong enough to withstand the various forces and stresses placed on them in building applications.
Therefore, there is a need for a reinforced, precast concrete building structure that includes all necessary support members, is relatively inexpensive, and is easily used in construction.